tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59028213416886441792018-03-05T08:04:43.514-08:00SusanEWiggetSusan E. Wigget has an MS in Writing from Portland State University. Wormhole Electric is serially publishing her novella The Witch’s Familiar. She’s been published in Aphelion Webzine, Augustcutter.com, and various literary journals.S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.comBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-29650577751029740332012-10-28T21:29:00.003-07:002012-10-28T21:29:35.277-07:00Updating on the Blog WorldApparently it was a false warning or a temporary internet glitch on the part of Wordpress. That is, my newer author blog is up and running: <a href="http://sewigget.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/updating/">http://sewigget.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/updating/</a>S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-35996198368611382932012-10-11T11:11:00.002-07:002012-10-11T11:17:58.614-07:00Talking Cats<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wRkKUxi8JvQ/UHcLr9o-JrI/AAAAAAAABa0/Hf1J6dTiWZQ/s1600/101_0222.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wRkKUxi8JvQ/UHcLr9o-JrI/AAAAAAAABa0/Hf1J6dTiWZQ/s320/101_0222.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br />At seven this morning, I could swear I woke to the sound of my cat Cheetah saying, in English, “Aren’t you up yet?” I felt a bit indignant. She was right next to me and had apparently said this&nbsp;in my face. After I was a bit more awake, this struck me as odd.<br /><o:p></o:p><br />I’ve occasionally written fiction that involves talking cats. Perhaps I was a bit fixated on this as a teenager, because, coming to think of it, the first versions of both the works of fiction I’m thinking of date back to my adolescence. One is now my novella “Witch’s Familiar,” which is available in electric form as part of the <i>Wormhole Electric Anthology</i> on Smashwords.com. The other was my first novel, <i>My Curious Adventures with a Witch</i>, the original (and drastically different) version of a middle grade series I’ve begun writing, with the working series title “The Rowanwick Witches.” Perhaps it’s inevitable that the cat I live with would also start speaking. Or perhaps I should recall the words of the Cheshire Cat: “I’m mad. You’re mad. We’re all mad here.”<o:p></o:p>S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-178932984475067312012-10-11T11:07:00.002-07:002012-10-11T11:07:53.690-07:00So Much for that Wordpress BlogSince Wordpress is pretending as if I don't have a blog on its site, it looks like I have to go back to this blog. I had switched because another writer told me that Wordpress is more professional-looking than Blogspot. No matter how professional it may look, a blog doesn't have much point if I can't add new blog posts to it. I was able to access it as though I were someone else: <span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><a href="http://www.sewigget.wordpress.com/">www.sewigget.wordpress.com</a>, so I now know the blog still exists. But the site won't let me create new blogs and won't admit that I'm the same person who created that particular blog.</span>S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-47739291591912343142012-02-08T11:56:00.000-08:002012-02-08T12:02:24.611-08:00Developmental Editing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WM3FzMFXFbo/TzLUmyaSBBI/AAAAAAAABNA/1qKHOQu5rH4/s1600/Kittenandtypewriter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WM3FzMFXFbo/TzLUmyaSBBI/AAAAAAAABNA/1qKHOQu5rH4/s1600/Kittenandtypewriter.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center"><span class="commentbody"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;Cambria&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-ansi-language: EN;">A developmental editor as gentle as a kitten</span></span></div><br /><br /><span class="commentbody"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;Cambria&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-ansi-language: EN;">If your developmental editing feedback doesn’t make an author feel eager to get to work revising the manuscript and instead makes your author depressed and reluctant to work on the manuscript, then maybe you’re doing something wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><br /><span class="commentbody"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;Cambria&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-ansi-language: EN;">When I’m working on a developmental edit—that is, editorial feedback on major elements such as characters, plot structure, and dialog (rather than grammar and spelling)—I typically mix in a lot of praise with constructive criticism about how the manuscript can be improved. Even as I do this, I sometimes think this praise is useless fluff. Perhaps the praise isn’t as necessary as pointing out how the book or story can be better, but it instills a sensitive author with confidence and encouragement. This is important, believe it or not. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><br /><span class="commentbody"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;Cambria&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Back in my undergraduate days in the early 1990s, I had a college instructor who was great at giving such feedback. No matter how much the story needed improvement, no matter how rough it was, this instructor got me excited to run to the computer lab or to my dorm room and get back to work revising that story. That’s the best way to do a developmental edit.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><br /><span class="commentbody"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;Cambria&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-ansi-language: EN;">That constructive criticism sprinkled with praise is infinitely better than getting developmental feedback that leaves the author feeling battered and believing it’s not such a worthwhile writing project after all. Developmental feedback that’s abrasive, snarky, sarcastic, and/or impatient rubs the author the wrong way. Accusing the author of not writing in a scene or detail that they <i>did</i> write but that you skipped over also rubs the author the wrong way. Doing all that and/or refraining from supplying the author with any praise, not so much as a, “This is a very promising beginning and I’m looking forward to seeing a later draft!” also rubs the author the wrong way.<o:p></o:p></span></span>S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-24653235705060413282012-02-02T12:39:00.000-08:002012-02-02T12:39:36.715-08:00First Person v. Third PersonRevision that involves changing first person perspective to third person perspective is a bit on the tedious side, since I'm going through and changing pronouns. A problem I've found with this by getting rid of "I," I end up with an awful lot of "she" and "her," between Violet and Amaryllis interacting together. I just looked over a paragraph before changing it and now suspect that it works better in first person. Of the three editors who gave me feedback on this manuscript, only one of them said I should change it to third person, so maybe I'll just ignore that after all. Or maybe I'll continue changing it later, after I've worked on plot development more. Decisions, decisions.<br /><br />I'm lucky nobody said I should change it from past tense to present tense.S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-59604597292174264072012-01-29T17:31:00.000-08:002012-01-29T17:35:48.880-08:00Completed Draft<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m10UQcD9ynU/TyXy8HG5bOI/AAAAAAAABM4/UrWjRHcYPDc/s1600/BunrattyCastle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m10UQcD9ynU/TyXy8HG5bOI/AAAAAAAABM4/UrWjRHcYPDc/s1600/BunrattyCastle.jpg" /></a></div><br />I just e-mailed the more or less first draft of my&nbsp;novella <em>The Woodland Castle</em> to Wormhole Electric, which has previously published my novella <em>The Witch's Familiar</em> in serial e-book format (<a href="http://www.wormholeelectric.com/StoriesByAuthor.html">http://www.wormholeelectric.com/StoriesByAuthor.html</a>). <em>The Woodland Castle</em> (and that's a working title, by the way, not necessarily a final title) is a fairy tale inspired by the Burning Times and set in an alternate reality based on sixteenth-century Germany. Here's a little description of it:<br /><br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px;"><em>WOODLAND CASTLE</em> by Susan E. Wigget</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px;">HOOK<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px;">Princess Sarabina runs away from home when she discovers that her best friends only like her powerful position and that her father, King Arnulf, has an active role in the witch burnings.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px;">PITCH<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px;">The crown princess, Sarabina, embarks on a journey from the royal castle of Matriolia to the legendary Enchantress’s castle in the eldritch woods. Brought up as a Polytheist by her mother and maidservant, Sarabina is disillusioned with her witch-burning father and with courtiers whom she mistook for friends. At the Enchantress’s castle, she may discover genuine friends… or more foes. But how can she end the witch burnings?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px;"></div>S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-92225902410733842122012-01-25T14:29:00.000-08:002012-01-25T14:29:57.439-08:00Wormholes, Witches, and Castles, oh myI just found out that Wormhole Electric, the e-book site publishing my novella <em>The Witch's Familiar</em> serially, is getting three to four visits a day. It's only been around for a few months, which is quite different from an old, established business.<br /><br />Meanwhile, as obsessed as I am with revising my YA fantasy novel into three or so Middle Grade novels, I'd better set that aside for now and get back to work on <em>Woodland Castle,</em> the next manuscript I'm submitting to Wormhole Electric.<br /><br />Deadlines are good. They cut down the procrastination. Without them, you might never get projects done.S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-61634345818882083662012-01-24T11:02:00.000-08:002012-01-24T11:02:07.562-08:00A Nightmare...Sort of About RevisionAfter slightly fewer than three hours sleep, I woke from a dystopic science fiction nightmare involving a dark indoor place with rooms that look like gigantic, vast stadium seating auditoriums with a vast circular stage in the center (something like the courtroom scenes in the Harry Potter movies but about three times as big). I see a lot of black—black walls and floors and such—and people wearing identical dark purple clothes. <br /><br />Many—probably the majority—of these people are androids, computers in humanoid form, but I didn’t know this at the beginning of the dream. I forget how I find out. I’m an innocent citizen going about my daily life and feeling confused by the behavior of most people (well, that sounds like my everyday life when I lived in the Midwest). One day, some of these computer-androids collectively go insane and want to overthrow the system. As a real human, I’m anxious and panicky as I observe one of the insane (or malfunctioning) androids run into one of these auditorium rooms and flinging herself (or itself, if you prefer) at a bunch of the androids seated in the room. <br /><br />Large numbers of androids, when the crazy android makes contact with them, shatter like glass into tiny, jagged fractures, flying all over. I’m terrified not only of being hurt by the flying glass but of shattering like glass myself. (Incidentally, the hallway leading to this room feels rather like the hallway in my parents’ house where I grew up, and the doorway feels like my old bedroom doorway.)<br /><br />This is my interpretation of what that dream was about. Yesterday I read a lot of editorial feedback on a fantasy novel I wrote as a teen, and I discovered that the manuscript is far worse than I imagined. Part of me is antsy to start revising, taking the novel apart and turning it into a series. Another part of me is terrified of “killing my baby” as the writing expression goes—making such drastic changes as taking the characters from Victorian England and sticking them in twenty-first century America. After all, this novel was what I found escapist when I was a teen, and for decades I’ve thought of these characters in that Victorian setting.<br /><br />In the dream, the hallway led to the doorway of the bedroom in which I hid while writing those stories (that I stuck together and called a novel)&nbsp;as a teen. The big room resembled a courtroom, and reading the developmental edits felt like I was on trial. The androids that shatter like glass represent characters in my novel, characters who will be altered or deleted altogether.<br /><br />On the bright side, I’ll certainly keep the current draft rather than destroy it like Nathaniel Hawthorne, who tended to burn manuscripts he didn't like. The current manuscript will be a reference… and a sentimental possession. Meanwhile, I’m already getting visions of what to do in order to set this series in modern-day America, and even bits of truly modern dialog are popping into my head.<o:p></o:p>S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-72775447632341970192012-01-23T12:17:00.000-08:002012-01-25T13:52:06.133-08:00Feedback on My Curious Adventures with a Witch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mn4m2uA2rjI/Tx3EF3tJdMI/AAAAAAAABMs/CuaV1I5K54g/s1600/100_0763.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mn4m2uA2rjI/Tx3EF3tJdMI/AAAAAAAABMs/CuaV1I5K54g/s320/100_0763.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{&quot;type&quot;:3}">I met up with Michelle and collected the student feedback for my Aunt Amaryllis novel. Three student groups (out of six) from her YA Publishing class chose my novel, and they all agree&nbsp;there's too much in the one book. They also all agree in changing the title, which is fine with me since <em>My Curious Adventures with a Witch</em> is the fourth working title. And they all agreed that it's middle grade rather than YA, which I thought might happen, even though the protagonist is seventeen.</span><br /><br /><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{&quot;type&quot;:3}">I'm thinking I'll make it into a series. I've got other ideas for writing about these characters, so I have thought about a sequel anyway. </span><br /><br /><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{&quot;type&quot;:3}">Strangely, I'm talking about characters I invented and started writing about back when I was sixteen years old. Originally Aunt Amaryllis was purely escapist, something fun to write about while living as a social outcast in rural Indiana. The novel started out as short stories that I decided to string together and call a novel since I was compelled to keep writing about these particular characters. </span><br /><br /><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{&quot;type&quot;:3}">Perhaps the main characters you invent when you're young are the ones who stick with you the most. I certainly haven't been as attached with other characters as I have been with Aunt Amaryllis and Violet.</span><br /><br /><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{&quot;type&quot;:3}">Because of the success of the Harry Potter books and the consequent popularity of YA fantasy, I decided in 2003 to dig out that old manuscript and revise it and expand it. Violet became Aunt Amaryllis's apprentice rather than just a niece who&nbsp;shared her&nbsp;adventures; I also made it more clear that Violet is the protagonist. I filled in chronological gaps between chapters/stories.</span><br /><br /><span class="messageBody" data-ft="{&quot;type&quot;:3}">I'm doing somewhat last-minute&nbsp;work on&nbsp;a&nbsp;fairy tale novella inspired by the European witchcraze. It has&nbsp;a&nbsp;due date of&nbsp;Feb 10. That said,&nbsp;it's far enough along that I can also get&nbsp;back to work on Aunt Amaryllis. So much to write!&nbsp;</span>S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-5952494073093458442012-01-20T14:01:00.000-08:002012-01-20T14:01:41.318-08:00Witch Fiction TrendIt looks like my timing is odd--witch fiction&nbsp;happens to be&nbsp;a trend, and here I am writing it. I've read <em>A Discovery of Witches,</em> which is adult paranormal romance about a witch who's from a long line of witches, and now there's the YA novel<em> Life's a Witch</em> and its eventual series (<a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/50213-swamped-by-offers-self-pubbed-ya-author-gets-agent-and-more.html">http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/50213-swamped-by-offers-self-pubbed-ya-author-gets-agent-and-more.html</a>). I read <em>Beautiful Creatures</em> about a year ago, and that's also a YA witch novel. <br /><br />Too bad my novel <em>My Curious Adventures with a Witch</em> isn't already published. On the&nbsp; bright side, my novella <em>Witch's Familiar</em> is available on Wormhole Electric's site. Furthermore, I'm about to get feedback on <em>My Curious Adventures with a Witch,</em> because I handed it over to Michelle, my former YA Publishing instructor, and she's about to give me the developmental edits that students did on the manuscript last term. So I'll soon revise it, probably share the revised version with my writers' critique group, revise some more, and start contacting agents. Then hopefully it'll get published before witch fiction goes out of style. I think many people have seen enough of vampires and are ready for something different, and I suspect witch fiction won't go out of style any time soon.S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-25614137823548115462012-01-15T20:24:00.000-08:002012-01-15T20:24:48.447-08:00Awkward Situation<span class="messagebody"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;Cambria&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Note to self: stop being nice and polite to bullies. Transcend that childhood conditioning. Next time a creepy guy bullies me into giving him my phone number, even if he claims to be a feminist, refuse and <i>keep</i> refusing.</span></span><br /><br /><span class="commentbody"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;Cambria&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-ansi-language: EN;">He left a message on my answering machine a few days after we met (I'm not returning the call!) and knows where I’m a volunteer. I refrained from attending an event there because I had told him about it and he seemed interested. He needs a therapist, and it’s not my job. I have a theory that he may be psychotic, since I’ve noticed insane people giving off creep vibes.</span></span><br /><br /><span class="commentbody"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;Cambria&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The situation has certainly confirmed that I’m still conditioned to be nice and polite to bullies—probably conditioned by relatives more than anything else, though our patriarchal society generally teaches girls to practice self-negation and be nice and polite in any situation. While a part of me is concerned, I have to protect myself. In my early childhood, relatives conditioned me to have unquestioning loyalty to them and to their side of the family, simultaneously demonizing my dad and his side of the family. But these relatives are also verbally abusive toward me, so I don’t think I’d be exaggerating to say that they conditioned me to be on their side against me. Weird, I know, but it’s probably not unusual. After I went off to college, if someone bullied me in a way similar to that of relatives, I had an unfortunate tendency to be in denial that I had a problem with this bully. Since then I’ve analyzed my relatives and intellectually reject bullies, the emotional conditioning isn’t completely gone. It takes a long time to completely purge crap from your childhood. </span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Cambria&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span>S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-44096756453065523482011-12-31T19:47:00.000-08:002012-01-05T19:50:45.345-08:00Before New Year's ResolutionsEnd-of-year rush<br />to bakeries for chocolate chip scones<br />and Boston cream pie:<br />hedonism before next year's ascetism.S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-18478883393936319062011-12-30T14:30:00.000-08:002011-12-30T14:30:02.737-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8b0WocobcLk/Tv47Vs5JLyI/AAAAAAAABMk/7iG5EaZg6iU/s1600/100_0469.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8b0WocobcLk/Tv47Vs5JLyI/AAAAAAAABMk/7iG5EaZg6iU/s320/100_0469.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px;">I had a dream in which I was staying at my parents’ house, and they were there, but so was a young woman I’d never met before; she may have been Indian. I went into the bathroom, and the tub was full of water and bubble bath and a colorful plastic Sarasvati statue (she wore a red sari) that served as a water fountain—water spouted out of her hands. It may have created an arc the shape of a rainbow. Later I went into the bathroom again with the intention of taking a shower, and although the tub was drained, the Sarasvati statue was in the tub again, sitting on the floor of it. I considered taking her out, but then it occurred to me that she filled at most half the tub’s floor, and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I could leave her in there while I took my shower.<o:p></o:p></div>Sarasvati is my favorite Hindu goddess—she and Durga are the two I relate to the most. Sarasvati is the goddess of the arts and knowledge and wisdom. According to the <em>New Book of Goddesses and Heroines,</em> “She is not only the water goddess, one of a trinity that also includes Ganga and Yamuna, but she is also the goddess of eloquence, which pours forth like a flooding river.” The book also says, “Sarasvati is the prototype of all female artists (p. 273).”<br /><br />Although I read a book called <em>Hindu Goddesses</em> before I went to India<em>,</em> I'd forgotten Sarasvati's association with water. It's appropriate that the dream involved seeing her in the bathtub. It's also appropriate that I dreamed about her while I'm immersed in writing a novella.S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-50294068267453033102011-12-30T09:28:00.000-08:002011-12-30T09:28:24.007-08:00Character NamingI'm in the process of revising my fairy tale novella <em>Woodland Castle</em> (it's a working title, and honestly it's a lot better than the first title I came up with). I originally wrote it rather intensely, the whole thing during the month of November, as part of my NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) project. (Maybe next November I'll actually write a full-length novel instead of a novella and three stories.) <br /><br />I just discovered that&nbsp;during that intensive November writing experience, I had created a&nbsp;witch-burning character called Father Duplicitous. I might want to change that name to something a bit more...subtle.&nbsp;After all, a villain shouldn't have a name like that unless you're writing for cartoons ("Dudley Do-Right," for example) or writing slapstick comedy. This novella is neither. I've given all the other characters German names (since I eventually decided to base the kingdom on Germany), and there's a posibility that his name might be the same thing, or something similar, but in German.S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-7715501168989843742011-12-29T19:12:00.000-08:002011-12-29T19:12:40.823-08:00Researching Disturbing HistoryI'm currently working on a fairy tale novella inspired by the Burning Times, a. k. a. the witch-craze in Renaissance and "Enlightenment" Europe. That's right, while there were some scattered witch trials and executions in medieval times, the actual witch-craze--that involved the execution of between 50,000 and 100,000 people (the vast majority women) didn't begin until about 1540. That's the Renaissance, not the "Dark Ages."<br /><br />My research (and I do get sucked into research!) has led me to an online e-book called Women and the Practice of Medical Care in Early Modern Europe, 1400-1800. <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/women-and-the-practice-of-medical-care-in-early-modern-europe-1400-1800-leigh-whaley/1023351355?ean=9780230282919&amp;itm=1&amp;usri=women+and+the+practice+of+medical+care+in+early+modern+europe">http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/women-and-the-practice-of-medical-care-in-early-modern-europe-1400-1800-leigh-whaley/1023351355?ean=9780230282919&amp;itm=1&amp;usri=women+and+the+practice+of+medical+care+in+early+modern+europe</a><br /><br />Many of the women accused of practicing witchcraft were&nbsp;traditional healers, who used herbal medicine and in&nbsp;some cases practiced midwifery.&nbsp;For a long time, women&nbsp;practiced in the medical profession, but in the late&nbsp;Middle Ages along came official&nbsp;medical schools in universities, where women were barred from studying.&nbsp;Accusing&nbsp;traditional, unlicensed healers of witchcraft and burning them at the stake&nbsp;was quite a way to&nbsp;decrease the competition.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O6I2hNv5vTI/Tv0r_jVTvhI/AAAAAAAABLo/Jh6Jmabl2Sk/s1600/100_1628.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O6I2hNv5vTI/Tv0r_jVTvhI/AAAAAAAABLo/Jh6Jmabl2Sk/s320/100_1628.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br />I visited Massachusetts in the fall (including a day in Salem) and&nbsp;although I have&nbsp;previously read up to some extent in the&nbsp;Burning&nbsp;Times, since then I've gotten sucked into&nbsp;doing research on the topic and incorporating&nbsp;it into my fantasy&nbsp;fiction. My&nbsp;sources include:<br /><br />Barstow, Anne Llewellyn. <em>Witchcraze: a New History of the European Witch Hunts</em>. Pandora, NY: 1994.<br /><br />Demos, John. <em>The Enemy Within: a Short History of Witch-Hunting</em>. Penguin Books, NY: 2008.<br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px;">Ehrenreich, Barbara, and Deirdre English. <i>Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: a History of Women Healers.</i> Second Edition. Feminist Press, NY: 2010.<o:p></o:p></div>Illes, Judika. <em>The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft.</em> HarperElement, London: 2005.<br /><br />Russell, Jeffrey B. &amp; Brooks Alexander. <em>A History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics, and Pagans.</em> Second Edition. Thams &amp; Hudson, NY: 2007.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Cambria&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Whaley, Leigh. <i>Women and the Practice of Medical Care in Early Modern Europe</i>.&nbsp;Palgrave MacMillian, NY: 2011.</span>S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-21313276205126013382011-12-16T13:41:00.000-08:002011-12-16T13:41:36.324-08:00Inspiring WalkIt's an unseasonably sunny day, with an unseasonably bright blue sky, and a temperature around forty-five degrees. I took a walk to the library. The walk (approximately twenty blocks each way) inspired a total of four little four-and-twenty poems (that's poems that are no more than four lines and twenty words). However, I won't post them here because I'd rather hold onto them and submit them to the fourandtwenty.com or, failing that, another literary journal that takes poetry.<br /><br />I've been meditating a lot since last Thursday--experiencing an unofficial at-home meditation retreat often interrupted by working or hanging out at In Other Words (the only remaining nonprofit feminist bookstore/community center in the United States), or by attending parties. Tonight, for the first time, I'm going to join a Buddhist sangha, the Portland Friends of the Dhamma, even though I've had bad experiences with two previous sanghas. <br /><br />A few weeks ago I went up to a Buddhist monastery in White Salmon, Washington and met some members of Friends of the Dhamma, and they have me convinced--or at least hoping--this will be a much more satisfactory sangha. I'm glad I'm back into my formal sitting meditation practice after two years of&nbsp;grad school--no sitting meditation, and no reading&nbsp;Buddhist books for a whole two years. I graduated in the&nbsp;spring but&nbsp;wasn't very disciplined, despite my intention of&nbsp;plunging back into sitting meditation immediately after grad school. I think visiting the monks at White Salmon was an inspiration, a reminder.S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-1550032641152926412011-12-10T18:17:00.000-08:002011-12-10T18:17:05.620-08:00"Do not go gentle into that good night"I'm currently reading the young adult novel <em>Matched</em> by Ally Condie. It's been compared to <em>The Hunger Games,</em> but&nbsp; I see more similarity in it to Lois Lowry's <em>The&nbsp;Giver. </em>After a couple pages, I began to think I'd like to see a novel set in this world but from a non-white and a non-heterosexual perspective. Outcasts are so intriguing.<br /><br />Here are links to a couple of poems that are mentioned in <em>Matched:</em><br /><br />"Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night" by Dylan Thomas &nbsp;<a href="http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377">http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377</a><br /><br />"Crossing the Bar" by Alfred Tennyson <a href="http://quotations.about.com/cs/poemlyrics/a/Crossing_Bar.htm">http://quotations.about.com/cs/poemlyrics/a/Crossing_Bar.htm</a>S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-14979203078367743542011-12-08T17:00:00.000-08:002011-12-08T17:00:08.820-08:00Adventures with a Witch and a ManuscriptWhile I was in grad school last year, I took Michelle McGann's YA (Young Adult) Publishing class. In this class, we read and discussed many&nbsp;novels written for teens. We also broke into groups--pretend publishing companies--and worked with manuscripts on editing, marketing and promotion, and book design.<br /><br />After I took the class, another student suggested I submit my completed YA novel <em>My Curious Adventures with a Witch</em> to the YA Publishing class, so that rather than paying an editor to work on my manuscript, I'd give students an opportunity to&nbsp;supply me with editorial and marketing feedback. So this past term Michelle shared the manuscript with her class. <br /><br />I found out yesterday that my manuscript&nbsp;was so popular that three out of the six groups (pretend publishing companies) chose my manuscript to work on!&nbsp;I'm so looking forward to revising it...and I'll likely share the next draft with my new writers group. I hope that after the next revision,&nbsp;literary agents will have a&nbsp;similar reaction to that of the students.S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-72270014010195936102011-12-01T16:47:00.000-08:002011-12-01T16:47:40.101-08:00Mink False EyelashesThis isn't really writing-related, other than an example of me writing a letter, but it's important to get it out there.<br /><br /><span class="messagebody"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; mso-ansi-language: EN;">E-mail to contact in order to let Jenna’s Make-up and Waxing Studio know what you think of using real mink for false eyelashes:<o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><span class="messagebody"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="mailto:jennaschneider@comcast.net"><span style="color: blue;">jennaschneider@comcast.net</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px;"><span class="messagebody"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;Lucida Grande&quot;; mso-ansi-language: EN;">My e-mail message:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-80298126878336371772011-11-19T11:47:00.000-08:002011-11-19T11:47:22.191-08:00Interconnectedness PetitionI have a tendency to write and&nbsp; blather about the importance of interconnectedness.&nbsp; We are all part of planet Earth, our home, and should respect it. Oppression of any--women and children, people of color, the environment, animals, other countries--is oppression of all. Here's a petition to sign:<br /><br /><a href="http://signon.org/sign/international-interdependenc.fb1?source=s.fb&amp;r_by=1531872">http://signon.org/sign/international-interdependenc.fb1?source=s.fb&amp;r_by=1531872</a>S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-64859947682345360342011-11-18T09:59:00.000-08:002011-11-18T10:05:30.201-08:00Witch's Familiar & Wormhole Electric<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div align="center"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W7RYN4WZ5S8/Tsac0yqJGRI/AAAAAAAABLc/FjAwPmvt2vE/s1600/100_1269.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W7RYN4WZ5S8/Tsac0yqJGRI/AAAAAAAABLc/FjAwPmvt2vE/s320/100_1269.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div align="center">My familiar, Cheetah﻿</div><br />After much editorial feedback and revision, Wormhole Electric (wormholeelectric.com) will publish my fantasy novella <em>Witch's Familiar</em>&nbsp;in serial e-book form, beginning November 25. <br /><br />The way&nbsp;Wormhole Electric works is this: you can read the first couple of chapters online, at <a href="http://wormholeelectric.com/Readingroom.html">http://wormholeelectric.com/Readingroom.html</a>, and after that, if you want to continue reading the novella you purchase the e-book. So please&nbsp;support&nbsp;not-so-famous science fiction and fantasy authors by visiting the Wormhole&nbsp;Electric&nbsp;site.<br /><br />Meanwhile,&nbsp;my attempts at starting a&nbsp;writers critique&nbsp;group proved to be about as productive as herding cats, but I'm&nbsp;about to join a writers critique&nbsp;group, so I can give and take&nbsp;developmental feedback on fiction. I may be a slacker when it comes to job hunting, but at&nbsp;least my writing career is seeing progress.S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-674581598207302772011-11-08T21:46:00.000-08:002011-11-08T21:46:27.552-08:00Writing BackgroundThe following is the original version of my essay that I submitted to Portland State University in 2008, when I was applying for the graduate publishing program. The essay I actually sent didn't include the stuff from my childhood (fortunately).<br /><br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="margin: 1em 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">I have a B.A. in creative writing from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, and since graduating I have continued to write many poems, stories, and essays. Almost a year after graduating, I returned to St. Louis and participated in a writer’s group. My story “Institute of the Dead” appeared in <i>Aphelion Webzine, </i>and “Havisham,” another story, appeared in the online magazine <i>Augustcutter.com</i>. Some of my poems have been published in <i>The Midwest Poetry</i><u> </u><i>Review</i>, <i>The Green Fuse</i>, <i>The Circle</i>, <i>Salamander</i>, <i>Windows to Women</i>, and <i>Words Unlimited</i>. At Archon in St. Louis, I once participated in Mickey Zucher Reichert’s fiction writing workshop.<o:p></o:p></div><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>When I was seven years old, I told my brother that I wanted to write a book. He sneeringly claimed that I couldn’t write a book and that I didn’t have a big enough vocabulary, and he demanded that I tell him every single word that I knew. I did not begin writing till I was eleven years old, and at first, except for a few poems, I focused on little books based on characters I made up while playing with a homemade dollhouse. When I was sixteen years old, the first person to tell me that I have a talent for writing was an English teacher, Pam Downard. She praised my writing assignments and published a couple of them in the school paper. After that, I regularly submitted short stories and occasionally poems to the school paper. I also wrote a young adult fantasy novel between the ages of sixteen and nineteen; in more recent years, I have revised and expanded that novel and am currently attempting to find an agent for it.<o:p></o:p><br /><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>I mostly think of myself as a fiction and fantasy writer, but while dwelling in the rather alienating environment of Kansas I was compelled to write journals and create blogs. I was also compelled to travel and to write travel journals. During my first trip to India, a Buddhist pilgrimage, I was inspired to write a novel-like five hundred page travel memoir, excerpts of which are on my travel blog www.stumblingaroundthirdplanet.blogspot.com. I currently have countless ideas for short stories and am working on an autobiographical fantasy novel about my experience in Kansas.<o:p></o:p>S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-20753763019804634942011-11-07T23:52:00.000-08:002011-11-07T23:52:08.287-08:00ProgressI'm about to get a poem and a novella published, am working on a couple of completely new stories, and just printed out four poems to send the <em>Clackamas Literary Review.</em> This is not "unemployment."<br /><br />More specifically, on November 15 my poem "Outdated Fliers" will be published in <em>Four and&nbsp; Twenty Poetry</em> (4and20poetry.com). I've already mentioned the novella on this blog, so I won't go on about that now; later, yes.S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-48355112135207021622011-11-03T07:54:00.000-07:002011-11-03T07:54:57.697-07:00So Much to Write and ReviseBefore registering with NaNoWriMo, I should have considered that I might have another edit coming from <em>Wormhole Electric</em>. Sure enough, it came yesterday, so I'll be working on a third edit on my novella <em>The Witch's Familiar,</em> which will be published in <em>Wormhole Electric</em> on November 25 (or rather, the first episode of seven, since they publish in serial form). At least they're giving me chances; most magazine editors start reading the draft&nbsp;I sent them and reject the manuscript outright rather than say they'll publish it after some revision. <br /><br />I wish open rejections--"We'll publish it if you make these changes"--were much more common, rather than closed rejections. That said,&nbsp;I realize that journals (and literary agents) receive a great many submissions and don't have time to give unknown authors that much attention. Yet unknown authors, if anything, need more attention than extremely famous authors.<br /><br />Between now and November 15, I'll not only be busy with a developmental edit and with my NaNoWriMo manuscript, but I'll also be revising&nbsp;<em>The Witch's Familiar</em> manuscript, since its due dates is November 15. This is what I've always&nbsp;wanted to do--be a full-time author without a day job. However, I&nbsp;imagined it with enough royalties to live on.S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5902821341688644179.post-66872093133070130542011-11-02T21:20:00.000-07:002011-11-02T21:20:25.160-07:00NaNoWriMoIt's day two of NaNoWriMo, the November challenge to write a novel of 50,000 words or 175 pages in only one month (<a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">www.nanowrimo.org</a>). The emphasis is on quantity rather than quality, in order to get writers and would-be writers to work on that novel they've been putting off. After the month of November is over, you can go back over the manuscript and revise as much as you want.<br /><br />My brother informed me via Facebook that he registered for NaNoWriMo and asked me if I'm doing it this year. I'm very glad that he's finally working on a novel rather than just world building and character building. I also decided to take up the challenge, but with a little artistic license: since I have a January 5 due date for a long story to submit to <em>Wormhole Electric</em> (<a href="http://www.wormholeelectric.com/">www.wormholeelectric.com</a>), I should work on two or three long stories rather than one novel. So that's what I'm doing. I have about thirty pages so far, 145 to go. Who knows, at the rate that one of these long stories is going, it might end up&nbsp;being a novel.S. E. Wiggethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08140108758200625222noreply@blogger.com0